New Delhi: The Election Commission of India on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that a wholesome disclosure of Form 17C (record of votes polled) is amenable to mischief and vitiation of entire electoral space and stressed that indiscriminate disclosure, public posting on the website increases the possibility of images being morphed, which can create widespread public discomfort and mistrust in the entire electoral processes.
The affidavit, filed by the director (law) ECI, said that in any electoral contest, the margin of victory may be very close and, in such cases, disclosure of Form 17C in public domain may cause confusion in the minds of the voters with regard to the total votes polled as the latter figure would include the number of votes polled as per Form 17C as well as the votes received through postal ballots.
“However, such difference may not be easily understood by the voters and may be used by persons with motivated interests to cast aspersion on the whole electoral process”, said the affidavit. It further added that if the relief sought by the petitioner is allowed, it will cause chaos in the election machinery, which is already in motion amid the ongoing general election.
“It is submitted that a wholesome disclosure of Form 17C is amenable to mischief and vitiation of the entire electoral process. At the moment, the original Form 17C is only available in the strong room and a copy only with the polling agents whose signature it bears….”, said the affidavit.
The poll body stressed that the indiscriminate disclosure, public posting on the website increases the possibility of the images being morphed, including the counting results which then can create widespread public discomfort and mistrust in the entire electoral processes.
The affidavit said the legal regime with regard to Form 17C is peculiar in that while it authorizes the polling agent at the close of the poll to get a copy of Form 17C, a general disclosure of the nature as sought by the petitioner is not provided in the statutory framework.
The ECI said that the rules do not permit giving of the copy of Form 17C to any other entity and the contention of the petitioner creates a situation where any member of the public or the elector at the polling station can demand a copy of Form 17C on the argument that it partakes into a character of a public document.
The poll body's response came on an application by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking disclosure of final authenticated data of voter turnout in all polling stations including the number of votes polled in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 within 48 hours of the polling.
The ECI said Form 17C is designed to be an immutable paper trail which ensconces the EVM and concludes the poll and the form is co-shared with its content, contemporary to the point of time, to the election agent and becomes relevant at the day of counting. “if Form 17C is seen as an unfettered document then, hypothetically at the end of the poll, the polling station can be overwhelmed by a large number of public demanding a copy of Form 17C on the argument that it is being given to the polling agent”, said the affidavit.
The NGO’s application highlighted that the data published on April 30 showed a sharp increase (by about 5-6%) of final voter turn-out as compared to the initial percentages announced by ECI on the day of polling.
On May 17, the apex court had orally told the ECI that it must disclose the form 17C data and queried, “what is the reservation (in not disclosing it)?”, while hearing the NGO's plea. The apex court had asked for a response from the ECI and scheduled the matter for further hearing on May 24.
ADR’s application said: “the inordinate delay in the release of final voter turnout data, coupled with the unusually high revision (of over 5%) in the ECI’s press note of April 30, 2024, and the absence of disaggregated constituency and polling station figures in absolute numbers, has raised concerns and public suspicion regarding the correctness of the said data”.
The applications said the data published in the press release dated April 30 (Phase I voter turnout- 66.14% and Phase II voter turnout - 66.71%) when compared with the initial data of April 19 and April 26 respectively shows an increase of nearly 6% in the Phase I data and increase of approximately 5.75% in the Phase II data.
